NPPA undermined

Govt decides to have bureaucracy set drug prices

Last Monday, the Union government made an announcement that further set back regulatory autonomy in India. It was announced that a committee housed in the government think tank NITI (National Institution for Transforming India) Aayog would “recommend” the medicines that would be brought under the government’s price-control schemes. This committee would be composed essentially of senior bureaucrats. This determination is currently the job of the National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority, or NPPA. The NPPA regulates the prices not just of medicines that are on the National List of Essential Medicines, or NLEM, but also of other health products such as stents.